Yes, originally expected in 2015, 5e OGL and SRD arrived on Jan 2016.
OGL is now embedded in the SRD, available here:
http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/systems-reference-document-srd
5e OGL is essentially the same with 3r OGL word for word (see below).
Like 3r SRD (and unlike 4e's), it contains de-flavored basic player and DM resources that you can use to create other OGL materials.
Please keep in mind that Basic Rules is not SRD5, and SRD5 is not 3r SRD.
For example, SRD 5.0 includes experience table (under "Beyond 1st Level", page 56), but simplified all classes to their archetype, and contains only one feat.
Wizards of the Coast has also created a new online market, Dungeon Masters Guild, that allows you to extend proprietary materials such as Forgotten Realms and sell them, sharing the profit with Wizards.
Otherwise, what you can do with the SRD and what you cannot do remains the same as 3r.
You can still distribute (and sell) your SRD based OGL materials, outside the guild, as long as the materials does not use "Product Identities" and does not violate other copyrights.
Differences between 5e OGL with 3r OGL:
- Term 7, last sentence, rights are now retained for Product, not Product Identity.
- Term 15 now refers to
System Reference Document 5.0 instead of System Reference Document. The years and authors has also been updated.
- Legal Information, Product Identity list now includes "Underdark", and also refers to new SRD 5.0.
Historically, the plan was an announcement @ 2014 fall and release in 2015.
Here is an official post about it:
We want to ensure that the quality of anything D&D fans create is as high as possible.
Basic D&D is aimed at new players ... not for material that you want to share broadly.
It'll take time for everyone to absorb the rules and how they all interact.
While the details are still in flux, we can say that we plan to announce the details of our plans sometime this fall. After that announcement, we plan on launching our program in early 2015.
This matches some other third party comments, which hints that they want to do something different from OGL:
Mearls' plan for D&D is largely the same goals that were created for the OGL.
The difference was that the OGL (assumed) that publishers would create a better game by cooperating through iterative design;
instead, authors were motivated to ignore each others' innovations and recreate the same rules so that they were paid additional cents per word.
It may be related that Wizards has not granted any translation license yet. Perhaps the developers are focusing on core rulebooks and neglected licenses. The real reason may be unrelated, of course.
As far as I know, as of 2016 Aug, there is still no official 5e translation.
Everyone may translate and release SRD5 under the terms of OGL, however, which is what Hobby Japan do.
(Update 2017 March: Finally, after 3 years, Gale Force Nine will translate D&D 5e into multiple languages, starting with French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Polish, and Portuguese. This stands in contrast with previous editions where a local publisher would buy the right to translate and distribute the local language.)
Short version: Str/Con/Dex/Int/Wis/Cha appears to be available for use, but tread carefully.
This is a very gray area, and any advice you get isn't worth much, unless it's from your lawyer.
If you copy all of D&D's design, your work clearly infringes on their copyright, and they can easily succeed in a lawsuit against you. If you copy none of their design, your work doesn't infringe on their copyright at all.
The problem comes when you copy some of their design. If your work is substantially similar to theirs, it's considered infringement. But how similar does it have to be? Courts have come up with many different answers on this, using many different tests.
Short of talking to a lawyer (which is generally a good idea when worrying about legal issues), it might be helpful to look at what other people have done. As you noted in your question, both Pathfinder and Dungeon World have re-used the Str/Con/Dex/Int/Wis/Cha concepts from D&D. This suggests three possibilities:
- This may be such a small thing to copy that it's not infringement.
- It may be infringement, but the copyright owner hasn't bothered to take action.
- The owner of D&D may have licensed the concept for use. (They have licensed some things.)
Sure enough, Str/Con/Dex/Int/Wis/Cha is part of the d20 System, a set of content published by the owner of D&D under a particular license for others to use. Pathfinder explicitly references this license as the source of their authority to use this content.
But if you're going to use the same license, be very careful to read exactly what is and is not covered. Many licenses allow you to use certain content, but only in certain ways. Many require you to license your derivative work according to the same rules as the original work.
Looking at what other people have done only gets you so far. In the end, if you're not sure whether your work is legal, talk to a lawyer.
Best Answer
It's a touch more work — and not easily summarized in this text box — but the Drama-focused version of the Cortex Plus system (as seen in games like Smallville) features a lifepath-based character creation system that takes a PC from childhood all the way to playability. Each step adds assets and resources along the way, and forges connections between the other PCs and any signature NPCs you come up with. Lastly, Cortex Plus does have a license structure — both commercial and non-commercial — under which you can release your game.